RV wood framing, types of lumber used
Hi to all. Does anybody know what common types of 2x2 lumber is used for constructing RV walls? I can find so many posts about wood vs aluminum etc, yet nothing about what actual types of wood i...
Forum Discussion
All the ones I've torn apart or repaired over the years have been constructed with KD spruce. And when I worked at a trailer factory in the early 70's, we built with spruce.
No fir as it weighs a lot more than spruce. Spruce is strong enough yet a lot lighter than fir. Once it is all fastened together, glued, stapled together etc it makes for a strong lightweight unit.
Fir gets very hard with age and is more prone to splitting with flexing and movement. That's one of the reasons fir is not suitable for RV application.
When they KD (kiln dried) the spruce, the moisture content is largely gone and it does preshrink somewhat, but it is very prone to twisting warping etc. More so than fir. So it's important to buy it straight, store it out of the sunlight and use it ASAP. Once in place in a wall or whatever, it is held in place by the structure it is being used for and will stay there with minimum warping.
But it will fly to pieces in a serious collision or rollover.
No fir as it weighs a lot more than spruce. Spruce is strong enough yet a lot lighter than fir. Once it is all fastened together, glued, stapled together etc it makes for a strong lightweight unit.
Fir gets very hard with age and is more prone to splitting with flexing and movement. That's one of the reasons fir is not suitable for RV application.
When they KD (kiln dried) the spruce, the moisture content is largely gone and it does preshrink somewhat, but it is very prone to twisting warping etc. More so than fir. So it's important to buy it straight, store it out of the sunlight and use it ASAP. Once in place in a wall or whatever, it is held in place by the structure it is being used for and will stay there with minimum warping.
But it will fly to pieces in a serious collision or rollover.
